April 25, 2003

N.B.: This is my final post of four today. God, I’m beat.

In step aerobics class, I spend a lot of time and energy checking in the mirror to make sure that I’m holding and moving my hands and arms according to eighteenth century precepts of correct stage movement. This involves, among other things, curving one’s arms slightly and holding one’s hands either with the fingers slightly fanned out or with the third and fourth fingers together, slightly bent in towards the palm (or, if one wants to be particularly refined, with the ball of the third finger slightly on the nail of the fourth finger). There are also rules governing how one stands and walks, but they become impossible to obey once one starts dancing around a plastic platform.

I’ve been doing step aerobics classes for three weeks and it only occurred to me today that this wasn’t just the most ordinary thing in the world.

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6 Responses to N.B.: This is my final

  1. Jenni says:

    Hey, honey. I’m here spreadin’ the love. You’ve been a daily for a long time now; thanks for always being entertaining, and funny, and just wonderful you!!!
    *mwah!*

    Reply
  2. Erin says:

    I find it fantastic and amusing that it only occurred to you after three weeks that that wasn’t ordinary. I’m not sure if you are referring specifically to the Baroque style of dancing, but I know from a fellow dance student how hard that style of dance can be in the face of current, less controlled styles of dance. And mostly, after the workout factor, isn’t step class supposed to be about fun? Just have fun, I say. Classically curved hands, jazz hands, limp-as-fish hands… refinement, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

    Reply
  3. Jon says:

    In case there was any previous doubt, you are officially a homosexual 😉

    *mwah*

    Reply
  4. Faustus, MD says:

    Jenni, thank you both for your kind words and for being you.

    Erin, yes, I am referring to Baroque gesture, though I studied it not as a dancer of Baroque dances but as a singer of Baroque opera. My performance, with gesture, of the Montéclair cantata The Triumph of Love once caused a reviewer to refer to me as “Rambo in a perruque.”

    Reply
  5. Faustus, MD says:

    Jon, welcome back. You can validate my homosexuality anytime.

    Reply
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